Favorite Engineering Involvement: American Society of Civil Engineers

One of my best decisions about sophomore year was joining the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE exists as a worldwide organization for members of the civil engineering profession, and here at USC we have our own student branch which focuses on developing engineering skills outside of the classroom through friendly competitions, speaker events, and networking.

Within USC ASCE there a number of different opportunities to get involved with, especially the different design teams. The teams are Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, Environmental, Geotechnical, and Surveying. I personally chose to join Concrete Canoe because it sounded not only the most unique, but also a great hands on learning experience.

Posing with our concrete canoe!

Throughout the school year, we designed and built our canoe in preparation for the Pacific Southwest Conference, where different universities compete by having the concrete canoes judged. The different categories include: final product, design paper, oral presentation, and racing. I chose to focus on final product by attending weekly aesthetic and construction meetings, and racing, by attending weekly paddling practices. I especially enjoyed the paddling practices we had every Sunday, as it was a relaxing break from school work and fun to be out on the water.

Practicing paddling out on the water!

At the conference, we accomplished a lot of success and saw a huge improvement over past years – something we really wanted to achieve! The previous year, USC’s concrete canoe placed 14th, and this year we placed 6th! We also were shocked to find out we placed 3rd overall in the entire conference, improving from 12th overall the previous year!

All of USC ASCE with our awards!

I’m so proud of what both the concrete canoe team, as well as USC ASCE overall was able to accomplish this year, and I can’t wait to see how much more we can improve this upcoming year! I’m looking forward to being on E-board as social chair and once again being a member of the concrete canoe team.

If you are considering civil engineering, I would definitely recommend joining ASCE. It is a great way to get to know a lot of civil engineers of all grades, and apply what we learn in the classroom to the design teams. Check out http://uscasce.com for more information or feel free to ask me any questions! Fight on!